Perryville Battlefield and Wilderness Trail

I never realized that there were Civil War battles in Kentucky until we were here and, of course, Ron told me about the Perryville Battlefield.

The Battle of Perryville, also known as the Battle of Chaplin Hills, was fought on October 8, 1862, in the Chaplin Hills west of Perryville.  Confederate General Braxton Bragg's Army of Mississippi initially won a tactical victory against primarily a singe corps of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Union Army of Ohio.  The battle is considered a strategic Union victory and is sometimes called the Battle for Kentucky since Bragg withdrew to Tennessee soon thereafter.  The Union retained control of the critical state of Kentucky for the remainder of the war.

It was a lovely drive to the museum.

It appeared that we were the only visitors but the employee inside was busy in the welcome center.

She seemed happy to see us and took time to give us a "private" historical review of the events of October, 1862.

What a wealth of information

It was a small museum but there was a lot of information to absorb.  This is just one of the many displays to read.

And there were some original artifacts.

Whenever I see the heavy wool uniforms the soldiers wore I think of how hot they must have been.

There were numerous casualties - Union 4,276 (894 killed, 2911 wounded, 471 captured or missing) and Confederate 3,401 (532 killed, 2641 wounded, 228 captured or missing).  In all, casualties totaled one-fifth of those involved.

We visited the Confederate Cemetery.

On the fortieth anniversary of the battle in 1902, a Confederate monument was dedicated in the Confederate cemetery begun by Henry Bottom (more on him to come), and a small Federal memorial was erected nearby in 1931.

We visited on a VERY windy day so we decided to take the auto tour rather than the walking tour.

When Confederate General Donelson's brigade moved into this valley, they were met with a deadly surprise.  The rolling terrain had prevented the Confederates from seeing all of the Union troop positions.  When the Confederates reached this valley, they became trapped in a deadly crossfire as Union artillery fired at them from both the west and the north.

And then we saw the Bottom House which was owned by Henry Bottom who began the Confederate Cemetery.

By then we'd worked up a thirst and there was no place better than a distillery to satisfy the craving!

In the late 1990's, Wilderness Trail co-founders Shane Baker and Pat Heist were in a rock band when they realized they needed to chase another dream.  In 2006, their journey of creating the finest whiskeys in the world began.  They were fortunate to be nestled in the rolling hills of Historic Danville, Kentucky, and also being exposed to the Kentucky Bourbon industry for generations while growing up.  Shane's family had been distilling in Kentucky since the 1940s when his grandmother, Doris Ballard, met his grandfather, Hubert Ballard, at the Kentucky River Distillery.  

The Visitor Center was lovely and we enjoyed relaxing.

And we had a tasting delivered right to our seats.

We tasted their three "standard" bottlings and based on which of those we liked the best, they brought us a single batch sample to try.  Yum!

Maybe it was the bourbon I'd had but it seemed like everyone in the area was very, very friendly.  I met a few friends.

The murals above the windows are so beautiful.

Besides human friends, I made a very special friend - Cooper!  He reminds me of a very sweet kitty we had years ago.

Cooper liked sitting in the sun while he took his bath.

Cooper is the only creature to live full time at the distillery.  See that house outside the window?  That's Cooper's very own house where he lives all by himself.  I hope he doesn't get too lonely.

That's our truck in the background

What a great (and unexpected) stop.